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10 February 2014

Can you believe it is February already? this year just seems to fly by, especially when things around here are buzzing with activity! after what seemed like an eternal down trodden feeling the upswing has finally come and it has been tremendous! My page Witch's Chamber on Facebook is even part of the Confessions of Crafty Witches 250,000+ fans giveaway! make sure you get in there and enter to win! many many prizes not just my own here is the album for you! and Me well I am busily creating new designs out of old pieces, bringing back some cameos as well as Celtic inspired knot work pendants, oh the energy around the wire and now the actual sketches that I seem to be compelled to draw, the ideas they come so quickly now! and if you know me well you know the sketch thing is really new to the party! It really has been so exciting for me to feel the growth and the connection with the wire is so strong, literally like my own little bit of electricity as it bends and swirls for me.....I have even come to understand why I use the covered colored wire so sparingly, if you really look at my pretties you will always find as well that those that incorporate that type of wire well it is just not quite so neat, not quite so orderly and well in truth just not so pretty as anything with the actual wire in it....guess why? well I will tell you anyway, the plastic coating on the wire interferes with my connection to the actual wire, the energy of the wire is lost to me, so it just does not produce the results I love.....I guess I shouldn't be too surprised I have always had that issue with plastics, oh that is so a term I will explain later in further blogs, and in the book to great length about my issue with plastics....anyway staying on the new positive note that my life is on!

Sometime back in October, possibly around the first anniversary of the passing of a friend of ours, someone that made the fact that not one moment of life is promised to any of us so painfully clear....he was 36, a father of two and a husband, and he was our friend....his loss was felt so deeply that it took us almost a year to recover in so many ways, not the obvious emotional ones because I am not quite sure that my husband will ever recover. Me though I am always so good at living in the moment that occasionally I like to sit and look back and reconnect the steps that have brought me to a new level of learning and to new opportunities for the future, this today seems to be one of those moments. Little did both of us know that as we held each other a little closer each nite, as we appreciated each morning waking up next to each other in a different light that this was changing us on the inside too, teaching us to open up to the feelings of gratitude within us.....the long forgotten feeling of loving life, our life with all its pitfalls and poverty we still were so rich in that we have each other, and we were suddenly reminded of this in a way we could not pretend we hadn't seen.

That's how it started, in October it hit me like a ton of bricks that I needed to create the life I wanted, the positive path that I wanted to walk well I needed to lay the foundation and pave the way, so I did. Strangely it had never occurred to me that the people that I chose to surround myself with even on something as silly as a social site could affect my home life but it sure did, it affected my state of mind and that in turn affected my life with my family, well I was having no more of that and the great purge of 2013 started....granted some managed to hang on into 2014 but were quickly dealt as well.....my personal profile is just that my personal profile, there is no reason to have anyone that is negative about me, my life, my path, my art or anything else that is important to me on it, it is an extension of my personal life, let us not kid ourselves it is for all of us. It is where we share our bits of our life, pictures, loves, children, joys, losses, heartbreaks....so why would we want to share that with those that push us down or tread on us? and realistically the ones that weren't removed for negativeness, well the reality is that if in whatever amount of time you were on my list you didn't interact, say hello, comment or even know I existed well then you will not miss my absence either. The haters well you all know what you can do right?

So what has been the effect of all this on my life? well I found time to take some wonderful classes at Daily OM, to which my connection with the wire well it exploded! with my art in general it just went wild! my writing well it doesn't stop, the blocks gone....some of my creations even made it into a store! and another one is taking them on in May in a whole other province! how cool is that!.....my family life has only improved, a new closeness that has only deepened our connection and I really did not think that was possible...even repairing old relationships from the past.....Then I was directed to a wonderful one year program that is completely free the Touch the Earth Paganism over at Old Ways, just cannot say enough about this program and how it can help you find the positive on those days when the negative tries and I emphasise tries to push it's way through, not to mention the love, support and good energy of this amazing group of people....I am lighting my own way on this path but I am far from alone as I found my community along the way and they welcomed me with open arms....the problems in my life have not disappeared, I am not having an "up" moment for all those haters and trolls (no offence to real one) that insist it must be mental health issues, the only thing that has changed is my own outlook on my life and the removal of the trolls from it.....nothing spectacular or hard to understand just like anything else that is allowed to just go along sometimes it requires a bit of a readjust.......and that is exactly what I did readjust.

My life is not perfect, but it is MY life how I choose it to be, and with whom I choose it to be.....and ah! that feels sooo soooo good you just cannot imagine!

06 February 2014

Today I am sitting at my table looking at the components of one of my Goddess chokers, they are simply beautiful and celebrate the triple aspect of the Goddess as reflected in the stages of the moon......they were also the absolute first piece I ever designed and created many years ago. A part of me is kinda sad to see it change but excited at the same time, like the old friend that has come back into my life its like being able to build something new on the foundation of something old. Funny how foundations are so important, yet we take little or no time to look at them unless of course the structure itself is showing cracks that must be addressed.....well for me its not what I did.

Many of you have come to me and asked me what changed, how come I went from the mentality I was in to this new positive one, strong and happy one.....did I suddenly win the lottery? or have a huge windfall? did my problems just magically disappear? no, no, and sadly no.....they are all still there, even the lack of funds that plague our everyday life, it just is what it is, the difference is simply in the fact that I took a good hard look at my foundation.....what every other aspect of me is built on....no I don't mean my parents, what they did to me or what I feel they didn't do for me, no I looked at me, what I had done, who I was, where I came from, how I created the life I have and how my mindset was also ALWAYS going to affect the life I have....truth is that I could still decide to drive myself nuts worrying about all the things and people that I can't change, but there is no joy in that, my life is really filled with joy, I have a loving husband, a beautiful family that loves me to no end, some blood some chosen, I may not have fillet to eat but we have healthy and happy meals with each other daily.....we have a warm home when the weather doesn't freeze us up, and we have each other to help when our knees get weak, so much to find joy in......the simplest and most complex of things all come down to finding the joy in life and I did....and it was in me the whole time!

That is what changed, that was the breakthrough......

Once that happened all my art changed with it, the same things and mediums I had been doing before suddenly started to shine differently, almost glow in my heart........I stopped looking it as work, I was quite often saying "my work" but it is not work it is my love.....my love of the Divine, my love of life and my love of me that comes out in all the wire I twist, or the clay that slips through my fingers as it molds itself into some creation that will delight me and someone else......that is my big secret. I do not plan my art it just flows, I do not control it and make it do what I want I have learnt through the many years of creating that there is no control, the energy must move you and you must allow it to move through you, to hold onto it, try to manipulate it or make it into what you think is best is counterproductive to what I do, afterall the art it comes from my connection to my soul, my Spirit, my love of the Divine, not from my brain, eyes or hands that would make it mortally inspired and well yea that is just not the way it is for me........maybe others but not me.

To paraphrase my daughter "I just got up one day and decided to design the life I wanted and loved" and walla here it is! and I love my life!

ok now back to my redesigned choker, my two bracelets one of Green Aventurine and one of Citrine.....of course after the beautiful lunch with my men of last nite's soup which I have shared here in case you all would like to try a down home Portuguese favourite of mine........Have a great day you all!

Calde Verde

PotatoesCollard greenshalf a small onion2 garlic clovesChourizo or linguisa if you are really lucky and have it salt and pepper to taste2 tbs olive oil

chop onion and garlic coarsley, chop chourizo, saute in soup pan with olive oil, when carmelized add potatoes that have been peeled and chopped to bite size roughly continue to saute till the potatoes look slightly translucent around the edges add water to cover and cook let it cook til potatoes are tender

meanwhile cut collards into strips, only the leafy part none of the longer stems they are more bitter, so if it has no leaf its not part of the soup

add to the soup when potatoes are tender and cook till the greens are tender, add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!